Missouri

Twice-convicted killer executed

A twice-convicted murderer who strangled a 9-year-old girl in St. Louis in 1986 was executed early Wednesday after a split vote by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Vernon Brown, 51, was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, nearly 2 1/2 hours after his execution was scheduled.

The execution was delayed when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a temporary stay shortly after midnight. But on a 5-4 vote, the court later lifted that stay and allowed the execution.

Brown has been convicted of first-degree murder twice, both times receiving the death penalty, though Wednesday’s execution was for the killing of the child, Janet Perkins. In the other case, Brown stabbed 19-year-old Synetta Ford and strangled her with a curling iron cord in 1985.

San Francisco

ACLU wins settlement for school’s gang search

Three students were awarded $20,000 each in a settlement of a lawsuit that alleged police illegally searched and questioned them at their high school during a crackdown on gang violence, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.

As many as 60 students, most of them Asians or Hispanics, were herded into classrooms three years ago at the school in the Bay area community of Union City. Police also photographed the students, searched their belongings and asked them about gang membership, according to the lawsuit. No arrests were made during the roundup.

Under the settlement, James Logan High agreed not to allow a repeat of the incident, and police are required to destroy all the photos and information obtained that day. A lump sum of $100,000 was awarded to attorneys for the ACLU.

Neither the school district nor the police department admitted any wrongdoing in the settlement.

Philadelphia

Security camera records homicide

A woman on her way to work was shot in the back of the head by a man who followed her from a bus stop, a killing recorded by post office surveillance cameras.

Police on Wednesday released grainy images of the crime in hopes that someone will come forward with more information.

Patricia McDermott, 48, of Elkins Park, commuted daily to her job as an X-ray technician at Pennsylvania Hospital. She was shot in the head shortly before daybreak Tuesday, steps from where she got off the bus.

Three images gleaned from surveillance cameras show exactly what happened.

A man follows McDermott after she gets off a bus. She begins walking toward the hospital and a man catches up and walks beside her. The attacker doesn’t appear to rob McDermott or engage her in conversation before killing her.

“He just does what he does, which was a totally brutal thing,” said police Capt. Richard Ross.

The final image shows the attacker fleeing across a parking lot.

Atlanta

United Way withholds money for Boy Scouts

The local United Way chapter voted Wednesday to withhold money from the area’s Boy Scouts pending an investigation into whether they inflated black membership numbers.

The United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta’s board of directors unanimously approved giving the Boy Scouts of America-Atlanta Area Council about $1.3 million for 2005. But about $945,000 will be withheld until the board sees an audit commissioned by the Scouts.

About $350,000 in donations from individuals specifically earmarked for the Scouts will still be given to the Atlanta council, the United Way said.

Joe Beasley, regional director of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, claimed in October that the 13-county Boy Scouts council was reporting 10,000 black participants when as few as 500 were actively involved. The numbers are used to help determine United Way funding.